Original meaning: hillside
Phonosemantic compound. 阝 represents the meaning and 可 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "hillside". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | 'a | qˤa[j] | slope, river bank |
| 'a | ʔˤa (< *qˤaj) | 阿會亘 ēhuìxuān: Skt. ābhāsvara “shining” (E. Hàn) |
說文解字
大陵也。一曰曲𨸏也。从𨸏可聲。
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
西 was written two different ways in ancient scripts: (1) a pictograph of a bird's nest, and (2) a variant of the phonetically similar 囟.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sej | s-nˤər | west |
| sej | s-nˤər | west |
說文解字
《說文》：“西，鳥在巢上，象形。日在西方而鳥棲，故因以為東西之西。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.831-832漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: sunset
Depicts the sun (日) shining through vegetation (茻). Based on the original meaning "sunset", now written as 暮. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mak | mˤak | there is no X such that X … |
| mak | mˤak | deliberate (v.) (loan) |
說文解字
《說文》：“莫，日且冥也。从日在茻中。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Pictograph of a man. The top horizontal stroke either distinguishes it from the character 大 or depicts a hairpin, something that was only worn by adults.
Components
一 Distinguishing component
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | pju | p(r)a | man |
| bju | [b]a | this, that | |
| bju | ba | final particle |
說文解字
《說文》：“夫，丈夫也。从大，一以象簪也。周制以八寸為尺，十尺為丈，人長八尺，故曰丈夫。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫林志強《《文源》評注》p.2
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)